Rico Penguin

  So I’ve spent much of the morning working on the following animation to showcase the major events of the Renaissance. It’s a little bit better than the previous one and this time all the dates are spot on with a little commentary at the bottom. This should be just weird enough to stick in your (and hopefully my) mind.

  So lets see. Where should we go next now that that is done (this thing is roughly a minute and a half long and it took me hours to complete).

  Real quickly lets do a crash course through the paintings that were on the last exam and are likely to show their face again.

This is the Primavera, from right to left we have Zephyr, Chloris, Flora, Venus (Below), Cupid (Above), the Three Graces, and Hermes.

This is Pallas (Athena) and the Centaur, from right to left you have Pallas (Athena) and the Centaur. I’m sure you figured that out though.

This is the Birth of Venus, from right to left we have Hour (a season), Venus, Zephyr (Male) and Zephyr (female). This one raises some confusion since the winds are blowing flowers (like Flora) and the season or Hour looks like…well Flora. Methinks that Botticelli was just horny for Flora in general.

This is Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man, he is 8 heads tall and fits perfectly within a square and a circle (considered to be the two most sanctimonious shapes). Now I would like to take this moment to say shame on Microsoft for not having Vitruvian in their dictionary.

That is the Florence baptistry, it makes a lot of sense why it would have been used for Linear Perspective. You can attribute two big events, the battle of Ghiberti and Brunellesci as well as the discovery of LP to this structure. So its a nice way to keep multitudes of information in your brain.

Massacio’s Tribute Money is a great example of Horizon Line Isocephaly, in other words the horizon line is at the head height of the figures and more importantly all the angles should point your eyes to Jesus. He was always a sucker for attention.

Pietro Perugino’s Peter Receiving the Keys, easy to remember as it is someone retrieving keys, Also Pietro and Peter kind of sound the same. The horizon line here is at the doorway to the building in the back (that looks a lot like the baptistry). Follow the tiles on the ground for confirmation.

Leonardo’s Last Supper is another example of using Isocephaly and Linear Perspective to draw everyone’s eye to Jesus. It makes sense, if you are going to do a picture of Jesus you figure he’ll be the main point of the image.

On your left is Brunelleschi’s entry for the baptistry and on the right is Ghiberti. The level of detail on Ghiberti’s is likely what got him the win.

Massacio’s Holy Trinity is another example of using LP to draw the eye to Jesus. Although I’m not sure why there is such an attraction to the whole…you know…dead or dying Jesus.

On your left you have Donatello’s take at David. Standing over the decapitated head of Goliath. I was under the impression that he wore clothes and didn’t use weaponry outside of a sling and stone but maybe I’m just misinformed (likely). On your right you have Verocchio’s take on David, has armor but it is skin tight and once again standing over a decapitated head of Goliath. Finally you have Michelangelo’s David. He opted for a more adult dude, but naked nonetheless.

This is Donatello’s St. George, I know I won’t remember his name well but hopefully you will. I suppose the cross on his shield should help remember the sainthood.

We begin with Verocchio’s mobster looking “Colleoni Monument” followed by Donatello’s Awesomely named “Gattamelata” in the middle, and Marcus Aurelius by…someone?

We have both sides of the Medici chapel here done by Michelangelo. The four naked folks underneath the two Medici are the times of day, on the left you have day and night and on the right you have morning and evening.

In both of these pictures you have St. Bernard talking with the Virgin Mary in works titled “Vision of St. Bernard”. On left you have Filippo Lippi’s version and on the right is Pietro Perugino. Notice the softer tones of Perugino’s work. That is what sets him apart from the more harsh works of the time (line wise).

Albrecht Durer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, then Knight, Death, and the Devil, and Adam and Eve. Try and remember these four, his works are sort of unique in that they are all grayscale and sharp drawn so it should be easy to punch him onto them.

Hugo van der Goes “Portinari Altar” is an example of someone influencing those in Italy rather than the reverse happening. His influence can be seen most prominently in the following.

You’ll notice those three dudes on the right and the troth being in both images. This one is done by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Shooting for the worlds most complicated name Antonio del Pollaiuolo is the artist behind both the sculpture and the painting. Each showing the battle of Hercules vs. Antaeus.

Lastly we have 4 works (one you’ve seen before) apparently nobody knows who did them but they are all four important and their names should be on your mind if you are taking the exam.

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The first is Marcus Aurelius, followed by Belvedere Apollo and the Belvedere Torso, and finally the Laocoon Group.

  I hope I’ve hit everything. If anyone who is taking the exam noticed some big holes feel free to send me an email and I’ll put them up. I too will be looking at this before the exam to refresh my memory .

  PS. That reminds me. Important to remember, Verrochio was Leonardo’s Teacher, Ghirlandaio was Michelangelo’s Teacher, and Perugino was Raphael’s. Just remember that daio sounds like angelo, Perugino and Raphael have p’s and r’s in their names, and that Rochio and Nardo are similar. Or you could just be a good student and remember them the old fashion way. But you know how that is .

  Tonight I’ll be discussing all of the non image related pieces for the final exam for CIR. Tomorrow I’ll be examining (early in the morning) the layover from the previous exam and make a new animated timeline to lay out all the important dates for the final.

  It’s a shame this class is ending but I suppose that’s the way of things. So lets at least leave with an informational bang.

  To begin we will take a crash course through the liberal arts, as stated before there are 7 Liberal Arts. No more and no less, if you know anyone who is talking about Liberal Arts do a quick check that they can name the stuff and if they can’t just ignore them.

  The first set is called the Trivium, this I believe is latin for “Three Roads”. In Order you have Grammar, easily remembered because you get beaten for not remembering Grammar in Grammar School (well used to), It is followed by Dialectic or more specifically Dialectic (Logic) which is not surprising since it is Philosophers favorite tool, they spread the worth of this tool with the final of the Trivium which is Rhetoric. Easy Peezy Folks.

  The Second Set is called the Quadrivium, or the Four Roads. In Order you have Arithmetic, which naturally leads into Geometry, which itself leads naturally into Astronomy. Because each is fulfilled to a great extent by its former, after these three you have the case of Music. That may seem ‘odd’ but you should also know that they mean more the mathematical and technical help that Music gives, such as plucking a line to check the tension or to work balance, or following the chirp of a metronome to accomplish a difficult task.

  When looking at Rennaissance paintings there are 3 vital points to look for, the first is Linear Perspective, established after 1425 (more on that tomorrow), the second is classical forms (Greco-roman stuff), and finally anatomy. These are not necessary in any particular order but they all three are necessary. Not that it matters but these were established by Ernst Gombrich. If you need a mnemonic, it would be L.A.C., Linear Perspective, Anatomy, and Classical Forms. I doubt you’ll need it but it could help.

  Neo-Platonism is one of the many faith structures that looks at life as a substandard situation only alleviated with death. Specifically it has 4 planes to deal with. You begin with the highest level known as the Cosmic Mind, understandably this is an area of pure knowledge (what could be better to philosophers I suppose). Next you have the Cosmic Soul, the place where all the causes of the lower two levels are dictated. After this you enter Nature, which is essentially the play dough area where forms are squished into matter to make everything we see around us. At the bottom of this entire thing is the Realm of Matter, non-living material. Which interestingly enough is actually more close to reality than you might think. But that’s a discussion for another day. Essentially we are at the bottom looking up. Through Philosophy we can spread our love to god and for whatever reason God is just chillin’ pouring love down. It’s like trickle down economics.

  Finally tonight I’ll finish with Isocephaly. Whenever you are looking at a painting and notice a bunch of heads all on the same line you are most likely looking at a case of Isocephaly and that can generally help you find the vanishing point. Other tools are using regions of the painting that you can discern such as tiling on the floor and falling their angles till you reach a singular point. I’m sure most people here know how to find vanishing points.

  Alright. I’ll see you all tomorrow. I’ll be finishing this up and discussing the first half of the final for Dinosaurs and their Environment.

  Today in class we were discussing linear perspective and the illusion of dimensionality. Which caused me to think about it. Isn’t everything we are seeing an illusion? I suppose that statement requires a bit of explanation or else it’ll sound a bit existential.

  The world around us is 3 dimensional, our vision is light based. It takes light so little time to make it between any visible distance and us that it is, for all intents and purposes, instant. This means that everything that reaches our eye reaches it at the exact same moment, which would make it all a flat scene.

  That means that we take a 3 dimensional image, it hits our eye as a 2 dimensional image, and we then convert it in our brain to a 3 dimensional image again. It is the techniques that our brain uses to do this that are converted into art ‘tricks’. Essentially we have figured out the various components that fashion together a cohesive three dimensional image our of 2 dimensional data. So in fact everything that we are ‘seeing’ is an illusion, because everything we are receiving is 2 dimensional.

  However in the case of this illusion what we see ends up being what we get. So I suppose its akin to mistaking someone for someone you thought you knew and then realizing that your mistake was believing you had made a mistake.

  Hope that blows your mind.

  For those that noticed a lack of update yesterday. I blame Thursday’s Bird Flu image…it obviously had a part to play in the event. At any rate I’ve decided that today’s update will have a nice series of timeline images to support the data. So to begin here is the first clean and simple timeline for our series of events.

  Quite simply we have 1400 which is effectively the beginning of the Renaissance, 1500 which is an important check point and then 1550 which is effectively the end of the renaissance. To remember these just remember 100 from 1400 and half of that to the end. So 1400, 1500, and 1550. Not that you should really need tricks to remember these three dates. First we’ll move onto one of the easier dates to remember, it is a competition that is said to chime in the beginning of the Renaissance. That considered I’m sure you know basically when it happened.

  So in 1401, 1 year after the beginning of the Renaissance two rather famous artists competed for the doors at the Florence Baptistery. Now you might notice in the image I ‘may’ have not spelled it right but its close enough and I corrected myself here. If memory serves the competition was between a fellow by the name of Brunelleschi and another by the name of Ghiberti. You can tell these particular people are important because their names are in the word dictionary.

    The one on the left is Brunelleschi and the one on the right is Ghiberti. Not to spoil the end of the competition but Ghiberti took the title and ran…to finish the doors. What came of that was the following.

    Frankly I felt by the end of it the doors didn’t look anywhere near as interesting as the pieces entered into the competition but that is personal feelings I suppose. Speaking of Brunelleschi however in a quarter of a century he will have discovered something that puts these doors to shame.

    In 1425, 25 years (basically) after the competition for the doors Brunelleschi discovered Linear Perspective, something that is so super fantastic I think it redeems him for any lost competition. Essentially it is the trick that makes an image look 3 dimensional, if you ever look at something and it appears to be 3 dimensional you are looking at something via Linear Perspective. Indeed even in the real world you are taking two dimensional pictures with your eyes and converting them via this trick…but that’s a talk for another day. Before we move on to more times lets look at some paintings that use Linear Perspective and some that might not (the latter is only if I find some that will be on the exam that do not).

    This is Masaccio’s Tribute Money painting which shows linear perspective. You’ll notice how the building on the right slowly falls back at an angle to create a feeling of depth and space. Also the man in the background is smaller than the men in the foreground.

    You will find Linear Perspective no more methodically used than in images with Jesus, be he dying or living they want to make sure your eyes are shoved full force into his form. This particular one was made by Masaccio as well. He loves him a good Jesus painting.

    Fra Filippo Lippi who is not important enough to have his name in word made the above image of Madonna and Baby Jesus. The Linear perspective is a little more subtle and found in the frame around the picture. This friar apparently wasn’t very good at Celibacy and had a kid who went on to become the teacher of someone very famous. We’ll move on to that later when I have my notes, I don’t remember offhand…lets place a bet of a dollar with myself of Donatello. It’s a 1 in 4 chance.

    Not that you are curious but it has been 6 hours since I started writing this…I get sidetracked easily. Regardless lets move on. Now that we have some good examples of Linear Perspective lets move on to another important period on the timeline. Much like how Linear Perspective was discovered a quarter of a century after the beginning of the Renaissance indeed another 25 years later a very important birth was…well birthed!

    That’s right, in 1452, essentially 25 years later (close enough for jazz) you have the birth of the most famous artist in the entire world. So much so that most people don’t even say his real name and yet they still know it is him. Leonardo Di Vinci, literally “Leonardo of Venice".”, is commonly just called Di Vinci which would mean that absolutely anyone who lives in Venice is being credited with his works. Fascinating stuff. When thinking about Leonardo we need to establish his works…or at least the ones I’ll be tested on.

    Much like me, Leonardo is (or was rather) extremely picky about details, whereas other artists might just draw and not concern themselves with every detail Leonardo would often not finish a work (such as the above Adoration of the Magi) and yet what is funny that even his incomplete works are still worth more money than anyone I know can afford to invest.

    The Vitruvian Man is one of my favorite works in all of human history. Interestingly (a word you’ll see me use a lot today) Leonardo wrote in mirror because he was left handed. It’s amazing to me I can barely write in the proper direction much less in perfect reverse.

    This would be Madonna on the Rocks, which is easy to remember because it is Madonna…on the rocks. Likely an alcoholic drink on top of a famous painting.

   This particular one found its way into a plaster cast in my own living room back in the day.  If you don’t know that this is the Last Supper don’t feel bad, but do know by some accounts you are likely destined to burn in hell. But good news is that apartments are very cheap there and I’m sure all in all it can’t be that bad. But back on subject.

    This is the most famous painting in the world…if you don’t know that it is called the Mona Lisa I’m pretty sure you might be in danger cognitively.

    So as with all things the Renaissance has some wonderfully spaced events. Just as Leonardo was born 25 years after the discovery of Linear Perspective which was 25 years after the beginning of the Renaissance AND the Brunelleschi Vs. Ghiberti Florence Baptistery Battle, we know how the next event 25 years after Leonardo’s birth.

    The Birth of Michelangelo, not only the best of the Turtles from TMNT he was also one of the four most famous artists in the world. So lets see some of the popular Michelangelo works that I’ll need to know and you as well if you are taking a Renaissance Course.

    This sculpture is called the Vatican Pieta…I think…regardless it is a fantastic piece that looks very much like an actual pair of people sitting. If you are looking to become world famous in the arts making some form of Jesus dead will bring fans to you in throngs. He really needs more people happy to see him alive…poor fella.

    Michelangelo’s David is also a very popular statue that has the hands of a golem. He was scaled so that when looking at him as you should (from roughly shoulder height to his feet), that his hands and head will look absolutely normal. Apparently they actually do…coolness.

    Michelangelo’s Moses…to me he looks more like Poseidon but regardless it is some amazing work. That beard is certainly enviable.

    So apparently the Medici were these rich mofo’s who made all their money off wool, with that money they were the ones that essentially fueled the Renaissance or something of that nature. Regardless this piece by Michelangelo is called Lorenzo de’ Medici which would tell me that it was made for one of the Medici or for an entire bank. It has a sister piece that looks the same but is mirrored to a good degree.

    As we move along through Michelangelo’s works we start to get closer and closer to his pinnacle work, the one that above all else really toppled the rest. This is called the Last Judgement, and it looks a good deal like the next great work.

   This is the Sistine Chapel, this is where everything comes together. Now that we’ve hit this and previously discussed the Mona Lisa I think it is time to update the timeline.

  So as you would expect we have another 25 years since the last big event. 25 Years after the Birth of Michelangelo we have what is known as the High Renaissance. Then roughly 3-6 years after that we have the Mona Lisa and roughly 6 years after that we have the Sistine Chapel! Oh how consistent the Renaissance is. Yes I know the image only says 1503, but it is somewhere between 1503-1506.

  How about the other 2 I believe earlier I said “One of the Four Most famous.” If I didn’t I should have when referring to either Leonardo or Michelangelo. But indeed there are two more turtles to unravel before we move on to the lesser known artists of the Renaissance. Not to overwhelm people I will also introduce someone known as Boticelli. If we travel back to the birth of Michelangelo (again 1475), we just need to add 5 years to come up on Boticelli’s three most famous works.

   This is called the Primavera, there isn’t much to say other than the fact that this is a Greek/Roman inspired art piece instead of Christian. You’ll notice similarities in his next two works as well.

    This is Pallas and The Centaur, I’m pretty sure that Pallas is a reference to Athena. Finally this leads us to likely the most well known of Boticelli’s Greek/Roman pieces.

    The Birth of Venus is one that I’ve seen multiple times before this course. The art style of Boticelli certainly doesn’t change very much between the works. However they are all better than I could do.

    So now that we have Boticelli out of the way lets move onto the birth of the Third (not in quality but merely in mentioning here) of the Great Four. Raphael born 3 years after Boticelli’s works, which is pretty close to being almost being a perfect double jump from the Birth of Michelangelo. Here is where it gets fun. Guess how long we have to go from the Birth of Raphael to get to the next great piece? 25 Years you say? You’d be exactly right.

  25 Years on the dot began the work of the Sistine Chapel. It is a very special number that helps quite a bit. This sets us up pretty well. We only have a few major timeline points and then a throng of other pictures to know. Likewise essentially 25 years after the Birth of Raphael we have a major works of his that should be known. In 1509-1512 we have the construction of the Stanza della Segnatura, which is a name that I’ll be hardpressed to remember during the exam.

  It’s an amazing little piece and I like how it has the extra levels of dimension with the woman who almost appears to be leaning off the image. It’s a great illusion.

  So that puts us here.  Certainly lots to deal with but thankfully we are almost done with the important dates (I’ll be doing an extra update tomorrow especially for left over statues and paintings). The next two events do not happen in the 25 year construct that many of the others can be worked into, that might be because they are depressing events. 10 years after Raphael completes the Stanza, Leonardo Di Vinci died. Perhaps out of sadness, or more likely natural causes, Raphael himself died. So let us complete the timeline and let me go to bed.

    So while we still have another 30 years till the ‘end’ of the Renaissance. This will close the timeline. We are still one major artist short, but for whatever reason Donatello is not on the exam for dates. If he is I’ll be sorely unprepared. Who knows maybe tomorrow I’ll look it up and add him too. Have a great night and I hope you enjoyed this intense shock study of the Renaissance.